(This review may contain spoilers).
When I originally saw this move advertised, it immediately caught my attention. While the director has made some movies that aren’t as good in the past, there have also been past movies by him I’ve enjoyed.
I felt this movie had a lot that was good about it. I did feel that James McAvoy’s portrayal of ‘Kevin’ and the other personalities was really good. I thought his ability to portray the three different main personalities, along with hints of the others, was really good.
I would have liked a bit more background on the other two girls along with Casey. I felt Casey was easy to empathise with and understand. The flashbacks showed how she’d reached the point of surviving, no matter what; but I couldn’t help being concerned about her towards the end.
I found Dennis, one of the personalities, to have a lot more depth to him than his initial appearance suggested. He wasn’t ‘good’, but compared to Miss. Patricia… I felt he was very much in the grey area.
It was interesting to see the glimpses of the different personalities, but it was harder to see how they might all fit together into one whole, unlike a different movie with the same sort of idea.
I was a bit surprised not to see anything of the three girls having gone missing from the outside. Given Doctor Karen Fletcher knew what Dennis did, it was something of a surprise that she didn’t even mention them. Or really grow suspicious, given the urgent e-mails she kept getting.
I did feel this movie crossed the line into science fiction. While that might not have been a problem generally, the science behind certain things really didn’t seem sound. While Dennis claimed to be the biggest, there was no visual evidence of that; and there is a big difference between someone’s blood sugar changing to the point of needing insulin and completely changing the size of the body.
Despite the unrealistic feelings of the biology, I did find this movie entertaining to watch. Despite being played by the same actor, the personalities seemed different enough that there was no confusion about who was who. Towards the end, I even started caring about Kevin.
This movie is one I would like to see again in the future and although I don’t hold out much hope, it would be good if the hinted-at sequel actually makes an appearance.
Ink of Blood 